Review

Review Summary: There’s enough experience here to build a freight train, although it’s not going to be a completely smooth ride.

The main aspect of Murder Construct is the fact that it is a ‘supergroup’. Featuring members from all over the death and extreme metal groups (Exhumed, Watch Me Burn, Fetus Eaters, Bad Acid Trip – just to name a few) the group were bound to turn a few heads with the news of their 2012 release aptly named Results. The album tumbles and turns, never falling out of a one minded concept of aggression, but unfortunately it becomes a little too much of the same thing. This is not to be misunderstood; the album is far from bad, but it’s not the best of the genre and it really isn’t a milestone for any of the band’s members. What Results does have however is some solid musicianship and tracks short enough to keep the listeners interest from waning too much. Thankfully the album comes in just short of thirty minutes, any longer and the length would have a detrimental effect and ultimately highlight the lack of contrast shown on this record.

Between the barrage of blast beats and throaty growls Results does have its catchy moments; not in the way a hook line may engage the listener, but more in the way a riff may create a bobbing action for the listeners head. The effect is subtle without succumbing to a monotonous display of breakdown after breakdown. The record builds off this grind approach with little deviation from the basic recipe and unfortunately that’s what prevents Results from becoming the ‘super’ album from a ‘super’ group. The albums highlight comes with the final track “Resultados”. The track has the most progressive patterns (in comparison to the rest of the album) and is also the longest at over six and a half minutes. The track itself has a more straight forward death metal approach allowing for an atmosphere inducing section that floats underneath the drum patterns and ringing riffs, before moving completely to the fore-front of the music. Piano and Middle Eastern strings flow in and out heading into the final stages of the song where the piano takes over completely. This slightly experimental (if not completely innovative) display of musicianship would do better if incorporated into other tracks and combined with the album itself, rather than just an afterthought.

Results hurtles along with much of the same thought process throughout, like a runaway train it highlights how predictable the grinding blast beats and stereotypical guitar patterns are. Thankfully the album comes to a gentle stop, rather than crashing off the side of the cliff. This ‘gentle stop’ shows that these talented musicians can sometimes think outside of the box. The production is clean and crisp and like most metal releases the bass is often lost in the mix, cymbal splashes come off a little too “tinny” which may grate on the casual listener but for the most part the professional and clear production only aid this brief release. Maybe this record is the start of something, a stepping stone to greater places. Murder Construct need to keep going, to develop on this foundation and maybe – just maybe with a sophomore release they can show off an album that pushes the limits, highlighting the potential they have exploring some new ground. A good listen throughout but nothing overly special in the way of extreme metal.